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Cool reference to Straight Time in From Dusk Till Dawn

posted 18 years ago by Super_Fu_Manchu
4 replies | jump to latest

I just spotted a reference in From Dusk Till Dawn that made me hop out of my seat with smug self satisfaction - in the TV report on the Gecko Brothers (in which there's a Death Race 2000 reference with the death tolls also), there's a black and white still of Tarantino having been arrested, and there are jump cuts which gradually zoom in on his eyes - just like at the end of Straight Time.

_-_-IMMA STREET WALKIN CHEETAH WITH A HEART FULLA NAPALM!_-_-

[–] allwrite13 18 years ago

Tarantino is a huge Eddie Bunker fan, so much so he put him in 'Reservoir Dogs' !

[–] freudified_n_funkified 17 years ago

The county jail admittance scene in Straight Time also seemed to be referenced in Pulp Fiction - Keitel hosing them down, calling them "gentlemen," telling them not to be afraid of the soap, etc.

And was it just me, or did Straight Time also seem to be a template for what the uncredited Michael Mann would later do on a grandiose, operatic level with Heat? The entire last third is almost identical plot point to plot point - the robbery, a gunfight with the cops, one of the crew gets shot, Dembo takes his girlfriend to go kill a guy who betrayed him.

[–] llegallo14 17 years ago

I noticed the Pulp Fiction thing also when I just re-watched Straight Time (it would have been funny if Keitel asked Jules whether his hair was a wig).

As far as the Heat similarity, Mann has acknowledged a lot of it was inspired by No Beast So Fierce, which he made all the actors read before shooting. But yeah, definitely a much grander scale.

[–] freudified_n_funkified 17 years ago

I did not know that about No Beast So Fierce. Pretty cool. In watching Straight Time with Heat in mind it did sometimes feel like it almost could have been Neil McCauley: The Early Years. That's kind of undercutting this great movie, but it had that vibe. Mann definitely took notes from Bunker.